“I want to know,” Jeri Mendelsohn says to a crowd of a several dozen elementary-schoolers, “how many people have seen a championship team before?”
“Not just New York City champions,” she clarifies. “Not just New York State Champions. But national champions.”
A gasp emanates from the audience.
Mendelsohn, assistant executive director of the Samuel Field Y in Little Neck, is talking about the Monroe College Lady Mustangs, naturally. Behind her, in the facility’s gym, stand several members of the 2008 National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division III champions. This is the second time in two years that the women have been guests at the facility’s “after school program,” in which children, some of them with developmental disabilities, bone up on their basketball skills with the aid of some of the sport’s most willing ambassadors.
“I’ve seen these guys when I was younger,” one child replies to Mendelsohn’s question, drawing applause from staff. That was the right answer.
Of course, who could forget last year’s clinic? The proceedings ended with center Alyscia Jordan helping one lucky kid attempt a dunk while perched on her shoulders. When the three groups of children arrive at the gym in disorderly lines this time, they are greeted by familiar handshakes and high-fives. And, oh yes, the unmistakable sound of happy children.
The ASP is but one of many programs involving special-needs children hosted by the Y, which operates with the understanding that “within every community there should be a place for every person to feel like a champion,” according to Mendelsohn.
That would seem to include the NJCAA champs from the Bronx, too.
“Last year it was fun just helping out the kids and giving back to the community. It’s great that we actually get to give back,” says Jordan. “For a lot of them it was natural – a lot of them really love basketball – so it came to them real quick.”
“Some of [the players] got a reaction that even I can’t get out of them,” says Robin Topol, director of special services at the Y. “They’re approachable. When you look at them, you just want to approach them.”
It doesn’t take long for the kids to recognize the kindred spirits in the room. After the players introduce themselves to choruses of “Hi, Alyscia” and “Hi, Markita” and the straight-faced junior college students can’t help but smile, it’s time to stretch, followed by an invitation for the children to “shake out” their legs. The pounding of 200 little heels on hardwood makes the gym shake.
Seth Goodman, coach of the second-ranked team in its division, owner of more than 200 wins over eight seasons, is the master of ceremonies. For him, the clinic represents more than your average community event. He himself learned to play basketball at the Samuel Field Y, where his father, Steven Goodman, serves as executive vice president and CEO.
“Jeri approached me and said, ‘Would your girls like to do a clinic with our kids?’ ” Seth Goodman recalls. “It’s great. The place has given so much to you, so it’s really nice. … It was an enjoyable experience for everybody [the first time], so we’re doing it again.”
“He not only has an outstanding basketball program, but he also is very much concerned with teaching his athletes values,” Steven Goodman says. “This is what community centers need to do. This is why we have such a strong community out here.”
“I wanted him to be a brain surgeon,” he says of his son. “Look what happened.”
As Steven Goodman says this, his son is in the midst of a dribbling and shooting exercise. The children, having formed half-dozen different lines facing the side of the gym, take turns bouncing the basketball, hurling it skyward, and freezing when the head coach blows his whistle. Seth Goodman is taking a certain delight out of halting his giggling shooters’ movements at the most uncomfortable moment possible.
“I liked it when we lined up and did games,” says Rebecca Chang, five-years-old, as the clinic comes to a close. “That’s the part that I liked. We all got to run and we all got to bounce the ball.”
“These girls are very good,” agrees Cristina Genao, eight and a half. “I liked them a lot.”
Shelly Yaloz, eight, points to “that one on the floor – I like her.”
The girls return to their roving reporter a few minutes later, showing off the autographs they just received from some national-champion basketball players.
“That’s the best part, when the girls give autographs,” Seth Goodman says, “because the kids get to meet the girls personally instead of something contrived.”
That part of the afternoon, to be fair, does have one contrived element: the autograph session is interrupted by the presentation of a gift. Mendelsohn gathers the kids together and hands Coach Goodman an umbrella. Why, you ask? “Because it rains a lot in Minnesota in March,” shouts a pre-rehearsed chorus – a reference to the site of this year’s NJCAA national championship.
